Jesus Caught My Mom This Morning!

Streaming_SunbeamsThis morning, July 20, 2014 at 7:57, my mom Jeanette took her final breath while my brother Jeff and I held her hands, stroked her checks, and told her "love you mom, it is time to let Jesus catch you now and take you home". I didn't know what those last moments would be like. After days of watching her struggle to breath, and especially the last 24 hours, I was amazed at how peaceful passing actually was. Jeff and I knew that we were on Holy ground. I will miss my mom's laugh, her gentle spirit, her sense of humor, her selflessness, and the way she always asked me how Patty and the kids were. I will miss knowing that she is faithfully praying for me, my family, and my ministry to fight for the hearts of men. Yeah, I am sad that I won't have my Mom here. I am also extremely grateful that mom will no longer have to suffer. As her body laid on the bed as we waited for the funeral home to come and take her body, I was struck by this thought. What I was looking at was only her earthly body (or earthly tent as Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians), and that her spirit (which is the "true her") had left and was now in the presence of her Abba Father. A couple of days ago I purchased a book by Henri Nouwen titled "Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation On Dying And Caring for the Dying". As with all of Henri's books that I have read, this one has ministered to my heart deeply over the past couple of days. Henri tells a story about a befriending a Flying Trapeze artist at a german circus years ago...The Flying Rodleighs. In one of their conversations the leader of the trapeze troupe told Henri this. “As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.” “How does it work?” I asked. The secret, Rodleigh said, “is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When I fly to the catcher, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me and pull me safely over the apron behind the catchbar. A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him. When Rodleigh said this with so much conviction, the words of Jesus flashed through my mind: “Father into your hands I commend my Spirit.” Dying is trusting in the catcher. To care for the dying is to say, “Don’t be afraid. Remember that you are the beloved child of God. He will be there when you make your long jump. Don’t try to grab him; he will grab you. Just stretch out your arms and hands and trust, trust, trust." This is the image I had of my mom this morning as I told her...Just stretch out your arms and hands mom and Jesus will catch you...trust, trust, trust. "I will see her again, but not yet, not yet".

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